Al Cisnero (Sleep) and Emil Amos' (Grails, Holy Sons) band OM have a few dates coming up this year. They were part of today's initial NXNE lineup announcement, and also playing Santa Ana's Psycho California Festival (May 15-17) with Sleep, Pentagram (performing First Daze Here), Cult of Luna, Earth, Kylesa, Russian Circles, Eyehategod, Indian, Pallbearer, Old Man Gloom, Cave In, Tombs and more. Tickets for that fest are on sale, full lineup below.

RIght after NXNE, they'll stop in NYC for an Invisible Oranges-presented show at Saint Vitus on June 21. Other bands TBA, but tickets are on sale now.

Full tour schedule, a video, and the Psycho California lineup, below...

Portland sludgesters Lord Dying will release Poisoned Altars, the followup to their great 2013 debut on Relapse, Summon the Faithless, on January 27 via the same label. It was produced by Joel Grind of Toxic Holocaust, and like its predecessor it's full of Mastodon/High on Fire-style riffage and shouted vocals. Lord Dying are far from the only modern band doing that kind of thing, but only a few are making records as consistently great and with as much universal appeal as Poisoned Alters. Get a taste of the new LP for yourself from the singles "A Wound Outside Of Time" and "An Open Sore," the latter of which features guest vocals by Aaron Beam of fellow Portland band Red Fang.

Scion A/V have announced the full lineup for their annual free Scion Rock Fest. This year's installment will take place in Pomona, CA on May 17. Judging by the number of acts (there are 26 all told) and the fact that it's all taking place on one day, it'll be another multiple-venue affair.

As usual, the lineup is a mix of crossover-friendly fan favorites (High On Fire, Machine Head, Red Fang, Crowbar, King Buzzo) with less obvious but still comparatively accessible acts (Midnight, Coffins, Big Business, etc.), and up-and-comers (Power Trip, Windhand, etc). You can check out the full lineup below. RSVPs for the festival will open Wednesday (3/26); keep an eye on Scion A/V's website to score your free spot.

If the Relapse Records stable has a signature sound at the turn of 2014, it's something like Lord Dying: sludgy metal with rock roots, shout-sung vocals, and a slightly technical edge. (Or, alternately, the midpoint between High on Fire, early Mastodon, and early Baroness.)

After a very active year in which they released a new album and scarcely left the road, Lord Dying will be heading back out in January for three month-long tours -- two European jaunts with Red Fang and The Shrine, in between which they'll put in a block of headlining North American dates in February and early March, including an NYC stop at Saint Vitus Bar on 2/27. No supporting lineup or tickets yet, but you can keep checking Saint Vitus' ticket page.

All tour dates are listed, along with a stream of Lord Dying's 2013 album, below...

Pig Destroyer has been a band since 1997. That's a long time; some of you reading this were probably born that year. During that 16-year run, various members have come and gone -- the band has had four drummers (if you count Municipal Waste/Burnt By the Sun drummer Dave Witte's brief stint) and three samples/electronics folk, but never once have Pig Destroyer included a bassist in their ranks.

Until now, anyway. In an interview with Terrorizer, guitarist Scott Hull has announced that John Jarvis (drummer Adam Jarvis's cousin) will be joining the band on the four-string. Here's Hull's explanation for the change:

"After so many years of remaining bass-less, why did you decide to welcome a bassist into the fold now?
Scott Hull: Well, the biggest reason we DIDN'T have a bass player, or another guitarist, for so many years was that we just didn't want the added complication of someone having to learn lines that I'd already written. Additionally, we just didn't want to have another person in the band because it adds complexity; travel arrangements for shows, space in a van/bus. . .etc etc. As the years progressed, we just thought "well we've gone this far without anyone else, why bother introducing a new headache now?" But honestly, I've been wanting to broaden the scope of our music for quite some time. It would be very difficult, for instance, to really do some Jesus Lizard-y type of material without a bass player, but we want to bring that sound into our material somewhat as well as some other styles that would really require a bassist, so that really made us think about it seriously. Luckily, the bass player we chose is a really good fit technically and personality-wise. He gets where we are at and knows we are picky about what we do and when, so he wont get impatient that we aren't touring 200 days out of the year.

Does this mean you'll be retroactively adding bass lines to your old classics when playing live?

Scott Hull: Yep, we've been doing that. And for the most part, it's added some real depth to the tracks, which is exciting. In some cases, like for the songs 'Terrifyer' and 'Starbelly', it's really changed them altogether. It's very cool. I feel like we kinda reinvigorated ourselves when Adam came into the band, and we're kinda doing it again with John. Change is good.

This decision was arguably overdue; Pig Destroyer have had a tough time replicating the thickness of their recorded material when they play out in the past, and a bass presence will make a huge difference for them. The Jarvises also play together in the awesome grind/death/hardcore outfit Fulgora, who hopefully won't throw in the towel now that both guys are working on Pig Destroyer.

A few hints regarding the lineup of the 7th annual Fall Into Darkness fest have trickled out over the past few weeks, but now the full lineup has hit the newswire. Curated by Nate Carson of the excellent doom band Witch Mountain, the fest will bring a broad range of psychedelic rock and metal acts to Portland, OR from October 10 - 13.

It's always great when a band you don't know anything about remind you that for every oversaturated, PR-drenched crew of mediocrity there is also a similarly underrated band waiting to knock your socks off. For me, that band was Lord Dying at Saint Vitus last year, and now the Northwestern gang is readying another US tour and preparing to release their Relapse debut, Summon The Faithless. Order yours at Relapse but meanwhile you can stream that sludgy, High-on-Fire/Mastodon-ian-influenced effort in full below.

Their tour heads eastward, tagging show shows before linking up with HOWL on the East Coast. That pairing will hit NYC for a show at Coco66 on July 27. All Lord Dying/Howl dates are below.

Red Fang and Black Tusk played their second of two NYC shows together last night at Saint Vitus (11/12), and though Indian Handcrafts dropped off due to visa troubles, Lord Dying was more than able to pick up the slack opening the show. The show was the third in two days for Black Tusk, who also played Acheron as part of a Sandy benefit as well as Bowery Ballroom earlier that evening (11/11).

The show was one of two that I went to that evening, stopping by MHoW to catch Death Grips with Mykki Blanco. Pictures from MHoW are HERE, but you can check out more pics from Saint Vitus below.

In addition to Bowery Ballroom tonight (11/11) or Saint Vitus tomorrow (11/12), Black Tusk will play a special late night show at Acheron tonight. The show, a benefit for Hurricane Sandy relief, begins with doors at 11:30 PM with an $8-10 sliding scale entry fee. All money will go towards OccupySandy, specifically the purchase of goods to help the relief effort. Head to the show to support a good cause or if you cant make it, purchase some relief goods on your own.

In related news, Indian Handcrafts were supposted to play dates on the tour but due to issues at the border, the band has been replaced by Lord Dying on all dates. Lord Dying's last NYC show was at Saint Vitus with Witch Mountainback in June.

After kicking off a tour at Scion Rock Fest, Witch Mountain linked up with Lord Dying to hit the road for a string of US dates that included Saint Vitus on Friday (6/8) with Pilgrim and Bezoar. Pictures from that appearance adorn this post.

Witch Mountain's support for the evening was definitely strong. Bezoar celebrated the release of their new LP Wyt Deth (stream it below) with the Saint Vitus show and were followed by Pilgrim, who's set ended abruptly after three songs when guitarist threw his SG across the room. Lord Dying was the biggest surprise of the evening though, recalling early Mastodon as hinted on their recent demo.

What separates Witch Mountain from the pack is vocalist Uta's truly epic range. These vocals provide an excellent contrast to the blues-y doom riffs that drive the Portland-based quartet. If you haven't heard them, catch up with South of Salem (out now) to prep for Cauldron Of The Wild, due out 6/12 via Profound Lore.

Witch Mountain, who play Scion Rock Fest this weekend, are on the road with Lord Dying later this week and will swing by Saint Vitus on June 8th. Tickets are still available. WM, who released their South of Salem LP via Profound Lore, quickly sold out of the first pressing of their disc and the second pressing is now available via their own Monastic imprint.

'The show will also double as a Bezoar record release party for Wyt Death, the band's new LP which is streaming below, along with tracks from Lord Dying and Witch Mountainbelow. Did I mention that Rhode Island's Pilgrim is also on board?

Wolvhammer has dropped off of all dates with Dragged into Sunlight, including Saint Vitus on June 14th. The band has been replaced by North Carolinians Make, who toil in psychedelic doom. Check out a stream of their LP Trephine below, and get your tickets while their still available.

This month's Show No Mercy has dropped at Pitchfork, featuring interviews with Atriarch and Nachtmystium and a new track from the latter.

Also, check out Ulver's cover of We The People's "In the Past" which will be on their upcoming covers LP Childhood's End. Listen to it here.

All suggested shows, listed Lord Dying tour dates, streams and live video from MDF is below. What did I miss?